


Homecoming

by neversaydie



Series: cock it and pull it [34]
Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Memory Loss, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, ben arnold is a good friend, consequences of the void, sammy and lily are stubborn little shits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 09:00:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14713095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neversaydie/pseuds/neversaydie
Summary: "He should be in a hospital!""He's not going anywhere," Sammy comes back, steely determination evident even through the closed door. Jack actually finds the sound of him and Lily arguing therapeutic, since it's one of his clearer memories at the moment. "He's readjusting, give him time to-""Our parents already said they'd pay for-""You think there's anywhere outside King Falls that's gonna hear him say 'I was abducted by a shadow demon' and not put him in a straightjacket?"[in which Jack and Ben bond, Sammy and Lily are stubborn, and home is where the heart is.]





	Homecoming

"He should be in a hospital!"

"He's not going anywhere," Sammy comes back, steely determination evident even through the closed door. Jack actually finds the sound of him and Lily arguing therapeutic, since it's one of his clearer memories at the moment. "He's readjusting, give him time to-"

"Our parents already said they'd pay for-"

"You are  _ not  _ locking him up in some facility," Sammy either slammed whatever he was holding onto the kitchen counter or punched a wall, from the sound of things, and Ben flinches where he's sitting awkwardly on the couch across from Jack. It's not like he needs a babysitter, but he hates being alone right now so he's grateful for the company.

"Who said anything about locking him up?"

"You think there's anywhere outside King Falls that's gonna hear him say 'I was abducted by a shadow demon' and not put him in a straightjacket?"

"You're just feeding his delusions! Something horrible happened to him and he's not gonna process it while you're letting him-"

"It happened, Lily! We saw it, we were there!"

Jack closes his eyes against the sudden wave of dizziness which sweeps over him, a dark haze of shadows and flies and a crackling voice which almost has him checking out of his head again. Ben is watching with concern when he opens his eyes, and something flits across his face before he stands up, offering Jack a hand out of his chair. 

"Let's get some air, dude."

It's been sunny for the past few days, during which Jack has spent most of his time outdoors because the brightness makes it easier to forget the shadows, but today the skies are a dull, slate grey which threatens rain. Ben plants himself heavily on the edge of the porch, squinting up at the sky suspiciously as Jack sits more gingerly beside him. He's skinny right now (apparently he wasn't skinny before, although his memory of  _ before  _ is still mainly fog), and already has bruises from sitting on a hard chair for too long. Sammy worries about the bruises, but Jack can't really concentrate enough to be concerned. 

"They've been getting along great, lately. They're just worried… and they're both stubborn assholes," Ben offers, when the yelling from inside the little house increases in volume. Jack sort of remembers the dynamic, has blurry images of snarking from behind microphones and across kitchen tables, so he can believe what Ben's saying. "But you don't have to do anything you don't wanna do, just so you know. We've… We've had people come back from similar stuff before, we know it's tough at the start."

Jack nods, twisting his fingers absently together as the wind picks up a little and the trees rustle around them (his nails are still broken, although he doesn't know what he was clawing at). He's sitting close enough to Ben that their sides are touching, which the guy doesn't even seem to register, let alone object to. 'Touch starved' is far too mild a term for what Jack's been like since he came back, and luckily none of Sammy's friends have been bothered by his limpet act so far. 

Although some forms of distance are… necessary, if not appreciated. The house isn't isolated, they can see their closest neighbours from the porch, but it's definitely far away enough from the rest of the world to feel private. Jack's grateful for that, since the whole  _ screaming nightmares _ thing would only feel worse if he woke up half the neighbourhood with it. It's bad enough that Sammy has to deal with it, although he insists he doesn't mind through jaw-cracking yawns the following day. 

Ben and his girlfriend (Amy? Emily? Jack's been totally failing to retain new information so far) have been extremely helpful over the past couple of weeks, refusing to let Sammy and Jack become cut off from the world as they struggle to adjust to their new normal. They both seem strangely familiar with what Jack's going through, although they haven't elaborated on why yet. Jack's just glad Sammy has people looking out for him, because he's always cut himself off from others and tried to pretend he's fine when something - 

Huh, maybe he remembers more than he thought. 

"Sammy hasn't lived here long, y'know. In this house, I mean. Maybe six months," Ben is texting, as usual, and the nerdy part of Jack really wants to take a look at his phone and see how it works. Everything has changed so much in the last… he's not sure how long. "He was staying with Emily for a while, but he wanted you to have somewhere nice to come back to."

Jack raises his eyebrows, because he can  _ hear  _ it being pitched to Sammy like that, his friends trying to get him out of a funk by giving him something positive to work on. He doesn't really know what went on while he was… lost, but Sammy looks a lot more haggard than he remembers him, and the careful way people check in suggests things must have been pretty bad in his absence. 

He doesn't ask, because he's not sure he's ready to know. Not yet. 

"I like it here," he agrees, rough voice startling Ben a little. He's been pretty quiet since he came back, internally overwhelmed with trying to process colours and sounds and feelings that aren't abject terror again (he slept on the floor for the first few nights because the bed was too soft, and Sammy slept right there on the carpet next to him). "I think he does too."

"That's… really good to know. It's hard to tell with him, sometimes," Ben shoots Jack a little smile, and Jack manages the ghost of one back. It's comforting to know Sammy has people around who  _ know  _ him now, that Jack doesn't have to try and force himself back on his feet because he's Sammy's only anchor. "Felt like he couldn't like  _ anything _ without his fiance here, for a while."

Hold on. 

"We were engaged?" The pained expression which flashes across Ben's face says that they were. Jack has a fuzzy memory of a car - traffic and a hot day and Sammy sweating in the passenger seat and… maybe that's when it happened? One of them proposed? "Huh."

"You don't remember?" Ben sounds weird, but Jack hasn't got enough of his emotional intelligence back online yet to understand what it is he's feeling. He barely understands his own emotions right now (they swing wildly since he escaped, he does a lot of crying for unknown reasons), let alone anyone else's.

"Stuff's coming back. It's just all kinda… scrambled," he gestures vaguely at his head with a bony, permanently-shaking hand, and Ben seems to be less upset when he understands. "I know I love him. The rest… I'm not super sure about."

"Then dude, stick with what you know. We'll help you make it work," Ben assess, sounding so sure of himself, and Jack thinks he's going to really like this stubborn little guy. They both jump a little at another crash from inside the house, and Jack feels a flash of irritation at being argued over like a pet during a divorce. "If they don't kill each other first."

Jack is suddenly struck with the memory of a college-aged Lily trying to throw Sammy out of a window - every detail crystal clear, from his sister's chunky highlights to Sammy's threadbare Pearl Jam shirt getting torn at the neck as he clung onto the window frame. Why they were arguing is a mystery, but Jack knows he was laughing as Lily screamed something about vengeance and Sammy kept trash talking despite the fact he was about to take a three-storey swan dive. 

He smiles at Ben properly, this time, because maybe he's not as broken as he thought.

"I think I remember how to make them stop."

It turns out Jack's memories are coming back just fine, because walking into the kitchen and putting his sister and his (apparent) fiance in a dual headlock makes them shut up really fast.

Ben is the one laughing this time, as Jack haltingly threatens to throw them both out of a window (the wording isn't right, and the delivery is a little off, but it's enough to show them he remembers) and the headlocks dissolve into an awkward three-way hug none of them are in any hurry to break up. Ben definitely takes a picture for his latest project, although nobody knows about that… yet. 

It settles the argument when he speaks up for himself: Jack's staying in King Falls, for now. Home is where the heart is, and his heart is right here pretending not to cry tears of relief while Lily makes fun of him through her own. He's sure Sammy and Lily will start fighting again as soon as he's out of the room, but Jack's more than prepared to break out tactical hugs whenever he needs to… now that he's remembered they exist. 

They just need some time to get back on their feet, and it finally feels like they've got all the time in the world. 


End file.
